Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Okay, so if you play this game by yourself online, and that's ALL you do, then you might not agree with this review... ...however, if you are like me, I primarily play offline franchise mode, so drastically changing this feature is a risky gamble for EA when it comes to gamers like myself. The only two words that I can use to describe 'franchise mode' this year is: EPIC FAIL. Madden 13 has something called connected careers, which serves as its only vehicle to play what past Madden's have called 'franchise mode'. This works well for online play, but if you are like me, I like to play franchise mode offline with a friend (you know, in the same room). We create our own guys, do a fantasy draft, and play as many seasons as we can until the next Madden comes out. Not this year. EA has chosen to abandon this group of gamers. Most of the features for offline franchise play have been removed. Create a player, and have him play in your franchise? Nope. Fantasy draft? Gone. You are stuck playing with the current roster of whatever team you chose. ANY roster customization? Virtually all roster customization is gone. Again, you are stuck with the real-life team rosters. You can't even edit player attributes, names, or positions. Finally, and this was the deal breaker for myself, and I will be returning the game I have bought every year for the last 10 years if there isn't an update issued. Multiplayer offline franchise. That HAS to be included, right? RIGHT? Unbelievably, no. I have no idea why they would take this out. It seems like a no-brainer, and quite frankly, I am a little pissed about it. Being able to have friends over and play Madden on franchise mode can't even be done in this years Madden. This literally makes this years Madden worthless to myself. If EA included last years offline franchise mode with Madden 13, and nothing else in Madden 13 changed, my review could very well be 5 stars, so don't infer that my 1 star rating is for everyone. It's not. But, I know a lot of people who play offline franchise, and wanted to warn everyone else in this group that EA decided to ignore us this year. UPDATE: 10/28/2012 I patiently held onto my copy of Madden 13 for a while to see if any updates by EA would be issued to correct some of the complaints I had above. I am happy to say that EA issued an update in mid-October which added some of the left out features. The update included the following: 1. Multiplayer offline franchise mode (up to 6 players) 2. Ability to import and edit rosters into offline franchise mode, this includes being able to bringing in created players, so it is now possible to play as yourself 3. A handful of tweaks to gameplay As far as I can tell offline fantasy draft was not included. I personally love the ability to perform a fantasy draft, however, adding multiplayer and roster editing is still HUGE. Overall, I increased my rating by 1 star, so it is now 2 stars overall. The gameplay compared to Madden 12 is improved, and I think the overall experience is quite a bit of fun, so if you like previous Madden games, you will be happy with the purchase. If all of the features would have been included in the original release date (including the still left out offline fantasy draft), I think this version could have been worth a 4 star rating. So call it sour grapes, but having to wait nearly 2 months for the features that I consider a staple of Madden, I can't bring myself to give it over 2 stars.